Stephen A. Grades Larry a Very Loud 'F'

[Mr. J]

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Still, over the past few weeks, Thomas has picked up a powerful ally - multimedia personality Stephen A. Smith. Over the weekend, Smith, a sports columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, the star of his own ESPN2 show, "Quite Frankly," an ESPN NBA studio analyst and host of the highest-rated show on ESPN-1050 radio, flexed his mouth on behalf of Thomas on two national telecasts.

Smith served up this high-profile defense by criticizing Brown's performance. This all started Friday night on ESPN's NBA studio show when John Saunders asked Smith, if he "had" to blame anyone other than the players for the Knicks' pathetic state, who would he blame? "Larry" or "Isiah."

"I would blame Larry Brown," Smith said without hesitation. "Isiah Thomas can't be absolved. But you (Brown) are the coach. Those are the players. You got a better roster than last year. Why are you worse?"

Smith climbed back on the soapbox Sunday, turning up the heat on Brown during an appearance on ESPN's "The Sports Reporters." Smith pointed to the Knicks' failures and asked why one prominent figure, associated with the team, was not receiving any blame.

His voice dripping with sarcasm, Smith said: "Why aren't we talking about the $50 million man with 'Mr. Fixit" as his nickname? The Hall of Famer about to head into the All-Star break around 20 games below .500. I just want to know. Because the last time I checked we knew the Knicks would stink up Madison Square Garden, and anyplace else for that matter. Still, we expected to see some progress by now. Nobody was looking for that from Thomas all by himself once Brown got here. So why is Thomas standing alone at the guillotine right now?"</div>
New York Daily News
Anyone else thinks Brown is purposefully doing this in order to get "his" type of players?

 

[Tribute to H2O]

You mean making the Knicks suck on purpose to get his kind of players? No. The players are doing that by themselves. The main goal is to win. If Brown could win with this team he'd try to win. The team is just bad. That's all. There's nothing else to say.


Anyway I think Isiah Thomas should be fired.

 

[jkidd]

i dont think that Larry is doing a bad coaching job for the knicks.
the only thing a coach can do is to instruct players on plays and its up to the players to execute. a coach can do just much but the success of a team is on the hands of the players not the coach.

Larry on his past championships like Phil Jackson have at least 2 legit allstars on their line-up. We cant say the same on the current roster of the knicks. I think larry took a very big risk when he accepted the job

 

[Mr. J]

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Tribute to H2O:</div><div class="quote_post">You mean making the Knicks suck on purpose to get his kind of players? No. The players are doing that by themselves. The main goal is to win. If Brown could win with this team he'd try to win. The team is just bad. That's all. There's nothing else to say.</div>
No, I mean Larry Brown is doing an awful job coaching the Knicks. 30 different starting lineups in less than 50 games, literally countless player rotations, playing the wrong players at the wrong time, and tearing the team apart to the media. Now how can the Knicks or any team expect to be winning if there isn't any sort of consistency or trust?

 

[Chutney]

Pretty simplistic analysis by Smith again. By giving him an F, he's basically saying that last year's coach would be able to get a better record with the same team. I don't think so. The team is more talented, but is still built horribly. Larry gets blame, but its a footnote compared to what is Isiah's fault.

 

[Mr. J]

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Chutney:</div><div class="quote_post">Pretty simplistic analysis by Smith again. By giving him an F, he's basically saying that last year's coach would be able to get a better record with the same team. I don't think so. The team is more talented, but is still built horribly. Larry gets blame, but its a footnote compared to what is Isiah's fault.</div>
Larry is just as much to blame as Isiah. I'm 100% Herb Williams would have us a better record with his coaching than Larry Brown. Larry hates the Knicks inconsistency, but he's the one who has the crazy player rotations and starting lineups. He complains about the chemistry and trust, but how can the players trust him when he runs and tells the media everything. That's only going to further alienate the players and the coach. The thing about the situation is Larry has admitted to doing a subpar job and said on numerous occasions I have to do a better job coaching.

 

[WadeDynasty]

Well Stephen A doesn't know nothing about basketball.
He just praises good team, talks trash about bad team. Everyone could do that.
All his comments are like this
"This team plays bad, because the players are playing bad."
Hell, I know that.

 

[Salim For 3]

There really has to be some kind of reason for LB's horrible lack of success. Everyone knows about his non-existant rotation, his feuds with the players, his hesitance to play the young guys...but with a coach as good as Brown, I just have to believe there's a reason. I have to believe that since it's his first year in NY, he's just getting a feel for everyone on his team, and will really get it together in the future...but you never know. Maybe he really just doesn't get it.

But more on topic, he definitely should be getting the blame right now. They were just bad last year, then their roster got better (Frye, Nate, Curry, Q, Lee, etc) and now they're a complete joke. All I blame on Isaiah is the cap management, and, obviously, Jerome James.

 

[giftedvisionz]

It was Isiah's mistake to hire Brown instead of letting Herb keep the position in the first place. Bringing in Brown to a team full of young, cocky, and undisciplined players was a mistake. This is Isiah's team from top to bottom. If Babcock was fired, Isiah should be encarcerated. The Knicks don't have anything desirable trade pieces, except for a couple draft picks, Penny, and their three rookies (which would be a huge mistake). The team is hopeless, and I think a complete rebuilding of the team is the only way it can get back to where it was during the previous years.

 

[Chutney]

It'd be dumb for them to fire Larry. His first year might be ugly, but I don't think he's ever had a losing record in his second year.